Diplomatic Text
My dearest, dearest, dearest Sister Friend,
I am much obliged to you
for this additional proof of yr.
kindneʃs, tho' I needded none other
to convince me of yr. affection &
friendship for me. I have read three
of ye Letters from yr Friends you was so good as
to send me besides ye. little Note
from Miʃs G——g, they are from
my Brother, yr. Uncle & Miʃs
Sharpe[1] ye. latter of whom appears
to have an excellent heart, pray
tell me in yr. next whether this is ye
rich Miʃs Sharpe or not, I mean
ye. young Lady you was once speak=
=ing of in London yt.. had refused
more than twenty offers of marriage.
As to ye. trifling mark of attention
you dwell so much upon of my
making P—— wait upon you
it is not worth mentioning, it is
no more than I owe my Friend,
my Sister, My Miranda, I thought
it wld.. give her pleasure to hear
how well we had been entertained
in ye. Morning, & therefore I sent
him till I was able to write
my self, in order to inform her
more particularly my self.
I return you with yr. Lettercase
ye. foregoingmentioned Letters beside
ye. Little Note, my Lettercase
not being sufficiently large
to contain ym.. all. I will
return you ye. others when I have
read ym.. in my Lettercase which
my poor Emily gave me as
a token of her affection before she married, you
will keep it if you chuse if not
you will return it me - I have
little more to add at present my
sweetest Sister than that I hope y& indeed
I do not doubt but that you will
continue yr. affection to me
thro'out my life, & that I ever
shall be unto my last breath,
My dearest Miranda
Yr. ever sincerely affectionate
& loving Brother
Palemon
toujours de meme.
7th. Octbr. 1779
Thursday --
afternoon
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The two hard-to-read erasures (here and top of p.2) and the suggestion that she is an heiress lead to the identification of this friend as Miss (Mary) Sharpe. The letter in question might well be HAM/1/22/14 of 30 September 1779, which includes a section in which Mrs Carter gives her adverse opinion on Fielding's Tom Jones (mentioned by the Prince in GEO/ADD/3/82/47).
Normalised Text
My dearest, dearest, dearest Sister Friend,
I am much obliged to you
for this additional proof of your
kindness, though I needed none other
to convince me of your affection &
friendship for me. I have read three
of the Letters from your Friends you was so good as
to send me besides the little Note
from Miss Gunning, they are from
my Brother, your & Miss
the latter of whom appears
to have an excellent heart, pray
tell me in your next whether this is the
rich Miss or not, I mean
the young Lady you was once speaking
of in London that had refused
more than twenty offers of marriage.
As to the trifling mark of attention
you dwell so much upon of my
making P—— wait upon you
it is not worth mentioning, it is
no more than I owe my Friend,
my Sister, My Miranda, I thought
it would give her pleasure to hear
how well we had been entertained
in the Morning, therefore I sent
him till I was able to write
my self, in order to inform her
more particularly my self.
I return you with your Lettercase
the forementioned Letters beside
the Little Note, my Lettercase
not being sufficiently large
to contain them all. I will
return you the others when I have
read them in my Lettercase which
my poor Emily gave me as
a token of her affection before she married, you
will keep it if you choose if not
you will return it me I have
little more to add at present my
sweetest Sister than that I hope & indeed
I do not doubt but that you will
continue your affection to me
throughout my life, & that I ever
shall be unto my last breath,
My dearest Miranda
Your ever sincerely affectionate
& loving Brother
Palemon
toujours de meme.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives
Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King
Item title: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/82/45
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.7 October 1779
notBefore 6 October 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 7 October 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on her sending him letters from her friends.
The names of the friends referred to are removed or given only by an initial. The Prince refers to a lady who has refused more than 20 offers of marriage; and to a letter case 'which my poor ?Emily gave me as a token of her affection'.
Written Thursday afternoon.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 311 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version: Transcription and Research Assistant funding in 2018/19 provided by the Student Experience Internship programme of the University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Emma Donington Kiey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Emma Donington Kiey (submitted June 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021